Tom Nash

Drawing from the life experience imbued upon him, Tom Nash exemplifies the anti-victim; the modern-day iconoclast we didn’t know we needed, until now. His dry wit and contrarian nature throughout keynotes delight the curiosity of his listeners.

Club DJ, Author and Speaker Tom lost all four of his limbs after a devastating brush with a deadly disease over twenty years ago. Coming close to death, he spent over 18 months in hospital, surviving a coma, being on life support and having to re-learn to walk using prosthetics.

Since then, Tom has learned not just to survive but to thrive. Navigating life with prosthetic hooks for hands, Tom launched a career as a musical artist, first as a guitarist in a band, later as a nightclub DJ. Tom subsequently went on to enjoy remarkable success in the music industry, starting his own nightclub brand in 2006, curating music as DJ Hookie and producing numerous records. He has since gone on to become one of Australia’s most in-demand DJs, playing sell-out shows across various countries and playing host to some of Australia’s biggest music festivals. He is the co-owner of a successful Entertainment company, and a platinum-producing record label. The nightclub brand he started became the longest running weekly club brand in Australia.

Tom is now a global keynote speaker, inspiring audiences with thought-provoking takes on antifragility — moving beyond resilience — and how embracing challenges can turn adversity into advantage. He has graced the stages of some of the world’s largest conferences and festivals including TED and SXSW. Tom’s unique talent for captivating people with his personal story, his dark sense of humour and his incredible wit are distilled into grounded philosophies for life from which everyone can draw wisdom. Tom’s unapologetic attitude towards dealing with adversity renders him deserving of the platform he so eloquently uses, speaking openly with sincerity and candour to a full gamut of audiences.

Tom’s book ‘Hook, Line & Sinner’ was published through Penguin Random House in 2023, and his TEDx talk has amassed over two and a half million views.

Tom Nash talks about:

THE ADVERSITY ADVANTAGE

In a world with so much talk of ‘resilience’, one must wonder… is resilience really good enough? In ‘The Adversity Advantage’, Tom discusses his process of going beyond resilience, and becoming ‘Antifragile’. Because sometimes it’s not good enough to simply be able to resist stressors; sometimes we must grow from them, using them to become better versions of ourselves.

From agility to adaptability, our ability to reframe negative vicissitudes can be the difference between sinking or swimming.

PROBLEM SOLVING & LATERAL THINKING

What do a Global Pandemic and the loss of all four limbs have in common? In his light-hearted yet captivating take on adversity and pragmatism, Tom Nash elucidates the links between being forced to think differently to solve problems, and the lateral thinking methods involved in overcoming challenges.

From overcoming the roadblocks of Path Dependency and Defensive Decision Making, to dividing and conquering problems creatively, identifying false assumptions and testing ideas that others don’t bother to.

An uplifting discourse which takes solace from the knowledge that no matter what threats lurk on the horizon… we all have it within us to overcome them.